


The Awful (Broken) Things That I Made

by FredAndGinger



Category: Bandom, Deadmau5 (Musician), Fall Out Boy, Mindless Self Indulgence, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Professional Griefers (Music Video)
Genre: F/F, M/M, So don't like think too hard on them, ask if you want more, basically just about the music vieo, i took hella liberties with the other characters in the video, professional griefers au, this is fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4831370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FredAndGinger/pseuds/FredAndGinger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank watches g3rard and deadmau5's fight of the century, the one that will decide who will reign supreme over the mau5 fighting league, the UFC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Awful (Broken) Things That I Made

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this in two days and I have a little more story left in my head, so if you like it please tell me and I'll write more. I have a little beginning for a Danger Days AU ready if you want it.

Frank stared at the screen as pre-fight interviews were taking place. Gerard was wearing those stupid orange sunglasses that Frank told himself he thought he’d gotten rid of (and knew he really hadn’t) months ago.

That was Gerard’s thing, the glasses. Frank’s thing had been eyeliner and piercings, back when he was known as 4rank and didn’t know any of the guys. The guys being Mikey, Ray, Bob, and of course Gerard himself.

Gerard was such a little shit when they first met, two and a half years back. With the Helium Wars going on in their peripheries, the world had turned to a distraction. Robot fighting. The UFC was the most famous league in the continent and Gerard had build up a reputation for himself over the years. If things had gone according to Gerard’s plans he would have been champion by now and his ego would be about fifty times larger, no matter how much Mikey tried to deflate it.

It took three fights to knock Gerard down a couple pegs. The first, back when he only had 21 wins under his belt, by Frank (4rank) himself. Gerard had been upset, so Frank took him out for a drink with his winnings and somehow they ended up partners. Collaborators. They even tried the whole team fighting thing once, before they realized that that’s not the kind of “partners” they wanted to be.

To put it short, they realized that what they really wanted to do was fuck.

Anyways, shortly after that 4rank retired and Frank became a member of g3rard’s Team. His style had been defensive, Frank’s mau5 becoming an immovable object until the other maus5 wore itself out, and though Gerard described his fighting style as “strategy” it wasn’t reaching its full potential until Frank came along, watching the screen and telling Gerard when to sit tight and wait for the opponent to tire.

The other two fights had been against b0b and ber7. b0b had been just plain better than him and ber7 had been using his emotions against him (they were exes, Frank had been thrilled to learn).

But he overcame that, bert kind of dropped out of fighting after a humiliating rematch and b0b hurt himself in one of the dramatic, staged, fights. He no longer wanted to fight, but he did like hanging out with the guys, so Bob became a member of the team. His job was welding, as he was a lot stronger than the other mechanic, Ray, who had a genius for inventing weird shit to add onto g3rard’s mau5.

Mikey was a whole other story. He had been fighting with g3rard for a bit when they were both sixteen and barely legally allowed to fight in the tag team “w4y br0th3rs”. They lost most of those fights. But Mikey picked up a thing or two about coaching and managing and whatnot.

They were the perfect team, honestly. Frank wouldn’t have them any other way.

Ha, if it were the other Way it’d be Mikey in the ring right now.

Back to the point.

Gerard (or g3rard) was being interviewed right now. He didn’t look nervous, but Frank knew him better than that. There was a reason he wore those sunglasses all the time. He had this nervous tick, it gave away his poker face. His eyes would dart all over the place, putting the world into the video-game like slowed-down strategy mode of his mind. He’s tried to explain it to Frank once, how if he focused hard enough he could make the world slow down so he could think. Frank didn’t really understand, but he’d said “I feel that.” anyways.

The interviewer was asking really stupid questions. Origins (everyone knows them), what tricks does he have up his sleeve (g3rard’s response: “Haha, you’ll just have to wait and see!”. Translates to: “You think I’d going to tell you and give months of training in secrecy away?”).

She threw a curveball and asked the mau5’s name (h3l3n4), and asked how Mikey was doing (prompting g3rard to bring him up on a holo from his watch to say “ _Hi._ ” and “ _g3rard is going to make some mau5 get dead tonight._ ” before g3rard hung up on him. Dude tried to maintain some civility, Mikey didn’t really give a fuck.)

Mikey was still laughing to himself behind Frank as he watched the rest of the interview.

She asked some generic UCF questions, why all the secrecy, stuff Frank kind of zoned out. He zoned in when he heard his own name though and Mikey quieted his giggling so that Fank could hear better.

“ _So, you and Frank Iero, formerly a fellow fighter in the UFC, are getting a little close, wouldn’t you say?_ ” She asked, batting her eyelashes in a ‘who, me? Asking uncomfortable questions? Why I never!’ way.

“ _Haha,_ ” oh no, that’s Gerard’s awkward laugh, “ _Well we are pretty close, it’s been like three years or so since our first fight? Yeah, about that long. He’s become my best friend. A brother._ ”

“Did Gerard just brother-zone you?” Ray nearly whispered, scaring the crap out of Frank, who was watching the TV with his mouth wide open in shock, “On live TV?”

“That,” Mikey said slowly, seriously, “is fucking hilarious.” And he burst into renewed laughter.

“Oh.” Frank began, closing his eyes on the screen where g3rard was still talking “Oh my god. I’m going to kill him. This is the end. Say goodbye to your brother, Mikey.”

Mikey was gasping for breath, but Ray responded for him.

“Apparently he’s your brother too. Are you going to kill your own brother? For shame, Francis, for shame.” Ray’s afro flopped as he shook his head dramatically, adding to the ridiculousness of the situation.

“That’s not my name.” Frank whined, looking towards Bob, who was walking in late to this party. “Bobert, Gerard called me his brother.”

“Oh man, he called me his brother too. Does this mean I get in on the action? I mean I don’t really want in on it, I just want an invitation extended.” Bob said, while Mikey waved his arms for him to stop.

“Cease and desist the jokes, guys. I think Mikey’s gonna stop breathing.” Frank said, pretending to care about the laughing traitor who was now physically sitting on the ground. wheezing.

“Oh hey, I think Gerard’s interview is wrapping up.” Ray said, nodding towards the screen. They watched g3rard say his thanks to all his fans and start getting up to leave the stage. The interviewer also got up and, when he went for a handshake, embraced g3rard instead. She didn’t let go for a good twenty long seconds, and when g3rard turned back to the camera there seemed to be a lipstick mark on his neck.

“Oh man.” Frank said, shaking his head at the screen, “We’re gonna have to cancel the fight.”

“Why?” Ray asked while Bob tried to force the now hiccuping Mikey to drink a glass of water.

“He’s going to be too dead to fight. I’m gonna go kill him.”

“Frank.” Bob said from the ground in an almost-completely-serious tone, “Joking aside, go easy on him, okay? He doesn’t want his private life public and he’s nervous enough already.”

“Fine, I’ll do it for you, Bobby-boy. But after the fight I’ll have my revenge.” Frank swore, though he knew it was an empty promise. If g3rard won, they’d be too busy celebrating for Frank to get mad again. And if he lost Frank would be consoling him. He’d just have to remember for later.

“Anyways, it’s better than the time he called himself a jacket slut on live TV.” Mikey added from the floor, where he’d calmed down.

“Ha, yeah. And the fans were posting pictures of jackets like ‘am I turning you on?’” Bob mimicked, laughing.

“Hey guys, did you hear about the new ray guns they’re thinking about adding to the new mau5 models?” Ray asked, already having been sidetracked by his news feed.

“That’s super shiny.” Mikey said, “We should get some on Helena.”

“‘Shiny’?” Bob asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it means awesome, great. Don’t you keep up on all the cool kid lingo?” Mikey asked.

“And you’re supposed to be a cool kid?” Frank laughed, “Mikey, you wouldn’t know cool if it came up and bit you in the-”

“Hey guys!” Gerard said from the doorway, waving at them. His sunglasses were still on. He really was nervous.

“Excuse me for a moment, boys.” Frank said, walking past the rest of the team and dragging Gerard into a side room.

“Please don’t kill him, he makes our paychecks!” Bob called after him as he slammed the door.

“So.” Gerard said, looking down at Frank, “I’m, uh… really sorry?”

Frank reached up and took off Gerard’s glasses. Yep, he was doing that thing with his eyes. Sizing up the scene, focusing on the aggressor, strategizing.

“We are going to talk about this later, Gerard Fucking Way.” Frank always forgot Gerard’s middle name, so he made do with what he had. “But right now I’m going to need you on your A game. So I’m not mad, but I reserve the right to be mad later, capisce?”

Gerard nodded, his eyes calming down a little and focusing on Frank’s.

“Good.” Frank said. He was still hanging onto Gerard’s jacket collar, what he used to drag him into this room. Might as well take advantage of it.

He pulled Gerard down into a kiss, their teeth clacking together a bit with the force Frank used. When Gerard decided to draw back Frank still had his lip between his teeth and he ever so slowly let him go.

“deadmau5 and I are supposed to fist fight halfway through the match.” Gerard whispered. It wasn’t uncommon for such things to be staged, but you certainly were not allowed to talk about it.

“Who’s supposed to win?” Frank whispered back.

“Me, actually.” Gerard laughed a little.

“Hey, deadmau5 looks tiny. You can take him, I believe in you.” Frank said, moving in for a quick peck on Gerard’s lips. He stepped back afterwards and looked at the stain on Gerard’s neck from the interviewer’s lipstick.

He sighed and hitched his sleeve over his hand, using the fabric to rub the color off of Gerard.

“You need to stop accidentally wooing girls with your awkward charm. You’re only supposed to woo me with that.” Frank said, trying to sound annoyed.

“Oh her? That was Kitty. She was just telling me how much I should try to win cause Lynn-Z’s got money riding on this for me to win.” Gerard said with a laugh “She’s trying to set up a trust for Bandit.”

“Oh man, I should have recognized her. I’ve only ever seen her once though.” Frank said, feeling way less jealous now. He still might have some choice words with Kitty later though, over the phone.

Lynn-Z and Gerard were equal parts complicated and totally uncomplex. You see, Lynn-Z and Gerard used to date, but realized that was a mistake when they both came to the revelation they were gay as hell. Since, Lynn-Z has been dating Kitty and Gerard, Frank.

The convoluted part, however, is that Gerard and Lynn-Z are legally married. Lynn-Z wanted to adopt a kid, you can’t do that with only one parent, and with Better Living’s authoritarian rules slipping slowly into society, gay marriage was banned again.

So Bandit was, for all legal purposes, Gerard’s. And he even had a nice little savings thing set up for her should she ever need it. Gerard had kept Lynn-Z and Bandit a secret so well that no one in the media had caught wind yet, but that meant that Gerard rarely got to see them, and when he went he didn’t take Frank, generally.

Anyways.

Frank took Gerard’s hand and led him out of the room. Bob and Ray were talking about the newer models of mau5 that were out now, how maybe they’d buy one with the winnings from g3rard’s victory.

Frank sat down in front of the TV and started watching deadmau5’s interview intently. He’d been doing this for months now, watching to see if he had any nervous ticks that might give away that he had something up his sleeve or that he was nervous. The guy was pretty much pure cockiness though, so it was kind of hard to tell.

“I think he’s nervous.” Frank commented as Mikey gave Gerard the 411 on how h3l3n4 was. Mikey was screwing something into g3rard’s controller, something decorative, Frank was sure. He wouldn’t have left anything important this long.

“I’m nervous though.” Gerard said, fidgeting with his sunglasses in his hands. There was a bonus to them, which was allowed to UFC fighters, the glasses had X-ray vision, something g3rard used a lot, with the push of a button. It was even up with his stats at the beginning of the fights.

“Cut it out.” Frank said, “You’ll win this. You’re better than him, you’ve trained harder. You know everyone with his ego always falls hard.”

“b3rt didn’t.” Gerard said quietly.

“b3rt was a dick.” Frank said with a shrug. “And you annihilated him three weeks later. So get yourself together and get ready to go.”

deadmu5’s interview was finished on the screen, and there was a voice on the loudspeaker requesting the fighters go to the waiting bay.

Frank kissed Gerard’s cheek and pushed him towards the door. He high fived the other guys (Mikey’s superstition) and put his sunglasses back on.

“Ready to be the new champ?” Bob asked, looking at him with a fire in his eyes that only ex-mau5 fighters had. A vicarious feeling that Frank shared.

“I was born ready, motherfucker.” g3rard said, a cocky smile growing on his face. He saluted them all and walked through the door, slamming it behind him.

…

_“Sit the fuck down so I can see!” Pete said, pushing Joe (who had been standing and mocking the interviewer) down._

_“Andy! The fight’s on!” Patrick yelled out of the door of their trailer, sitting in the abandoned park._

_Andy rushed through the door and practically dove on top of Joe, who was sitting in his chair._

_“Shit, did I miss the stats?” He asked, eyes glued to the screen as the announcer prattled on about something or other._

_“Nah.” Pete said, “it’s just starting.“_

…

“I love that scroll on the bottom.” Ray said, pointing at the fake news crawling across the screen. “Meowington’s Corp issues recall on robotic cats due to faulty logic chip? Hysterical.”

“The IT factor just broke. These are two fighters people consider amongst the very best, pound for pound, in the world.” The announcer was saying as they camera looked out over the audience, “Let’s go up to our announcer.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, can you dig it?” The tattooed man yelled into his microphone, “It’s FIGHT NIGHT!”

“Here is the challenger!” The voice over announcer said, as the cameras turned to g3rard, “He’s a real natural talent, fantastic prose. Creative. And if he wins tonight, he will become the youngest champion in UFC history.”

“And maybe we’ll get a bonus for breaking a new record.” Bob said. They’d long ago stopped trying to make Bob shut up his running commentary through fights.

“The Champion!” The announcer introduced as deadmau5 swung around on the screen, “He is truly a hero in this fight, everything we have read, everything he has said. One of the finest fighters on the planet, if not the best. People say he’s cocky, but it’s confidence. totally an animal.”

“Well we know who the announcer is betting on.” Bob said as g3rard and deadmau5 onscreen pulled out their controllers. deadmau5’s #5 was looking a lot better than h3l3n4, but that really didn’t mean anything when half of her rust was just a trick to lure the opponents into a false sense of security.

The fighters started up their control panels, getting everything the way they wanted it to be and getting their mau5’s out of sleep mode.

…

_Bandit, her hair newly dyed purple and surrounded by people other than Steve and Jimmy and Kitty and Lyn-Z, was having the time of her life. She spotted a cat out in the crowd, even though she was there to watch Gee, and chased after it, forgetting to tell her mother where she was going._

…

_The robots were tapping fists, like in the old days when people actually fought each other (not those staged fights like the one that’s going to happen tonight)._

_“g3rard’s bot looks too bad for this fight.” Joe said, “He’s going to lose.”_

_“It’s an act, can’t you tell that’s paint?” Patrick argued while Pete told him to shut the fuck up again._

…

deadmau5 got the first punch. Frank hissed slightly as sparks flew on the screen and g3rard hit the console. They weren’t supposed to start for five seconds after the bell, but deadmau5 got away with it.

Frank kept his eyes glued to the screen as deadmau5 used his new spinning technique, one they’ve know about for ages, to land a blow on h3l3n4. It was part of the plan, let the aggressive opponent become over-confident, then take them out.

g3rard let h3l3n4 fall to her fists, which caused deadmau5 to look away from the fight to bask in the glory of the crowd.

…

_Lyn-Z watched intently as g3rard scratched his neck when h3l3n4 fell down. He was making it look like this was a calculated move, but she never could be sure._

_Jimmy had disappeared for some fucking reason, and she heard his annoying whistle over the crowd. She looked up to see him waving her towards himself on the scaffolding._

_“What are you doing?” She asked as she climbed it next to him._

_“Looking for your daughter!” He said, dragging her back to reality._

_Lynn-Z shook her head. Sometimes she had these little lapses where she forgot she wasn’t just a teenager watching these matches. She looked around frantically._

_“Bandit? Where is she?” She asked, panicked._

_“That’s what I’m trying to find out you idiot, now look with me!”_

…

h3l3n4 got up just as the bell was ringing for round two. Frank held his walkie talkie to his face.

“Alright, plan is go.” He said, so that g3rard would hear.

When the round began h3l3n4 started whaling on #5, a combination move that deadmau5 couldn’t block. The man sat back in his seat and looked like he was starting to take things a little more seriously.

#5 landed a blow on h3l3n4, but h3l3n4 returned double the force.

This was shaping up to be a good fight.

…

_Mark Hoppus and Billie Joe Armstrong had never gotten along too well in this crazy corporate world. They were, in fact, rival television executives brought together for this once, for this one fight._

_They were broadcasting this to the entirety of The Americas, war-torn or not. And they had a few cheap girls and expensive drinks for the show. This was shaping up to be a beautiful friendship._

…

g3rard was on his A game, h3l3n4 hadn’t taken any more hits and the only damage Bob was reading from his diagnostics screen was the dents to her knuckles from punching #5 so much.

…

_The cat was headed for some wires. She was just out of reach, Bandit almost got her, when her mom grabbed her arm and dragged her away._

_“I swear I’m getting a leash.” Lyn-Z muttered as Bandit complained and tried to get away again._

…

_Beautiful friendship ruined. Mark was getting a little too into his cheap girl and not enough into the expensive booze. Mark and his girl were too busy making out to care about company, and Billie Joe escaped to another room to watch in peace._

_So neither of them noticed the fuzzing screen for a few moments as the cat’s magnetics fucked with the wires._

…

The fight ground to a temporary halt while deadmau5 argued with the ref and g3rard pretended to yawn.

The fighters started to argue, though no one could really hear them, and then they got into a fight.

“Wow this looks so real guys,” Bob said, “So real. Like not fake at all. These two skinny chicken legged dudes are gonna have it out.”

…

_Mark looked up from his girl just in time to see g3rard put his glasses back on after they’d been knocked off in his fight with deadmau5. Well, the fight was going to plan, he’d have to add that to their winnings money._

…

The announcer was yelling at deadmau5 while the fighters got back into their chairs. Before deadmau5 was really ready g3rard had pulled out an ‘ol one-two’ combo that sent #5 reeling backwards.

#5 was down and deadmau5 looked none too happy about that.

…

_Brendon watched on the screen outside a TV shop as #5 went down._

_“No, get up.” He whispered, “Come on, I’m rooting for you.”_

_His parents didn’t allow them to watch fighting in the house, but he needed to know how this went._

_A guy with a beard joined him._

_“Hey, he said, I’m Spencer. Who are you for?” The guy asked._

_“deamau5, for sure.” Brendon replied._

_“Psh, deadmau5. He bribes his way through every fight.” Spencer scoffed._

_Brendon turned on him to say something about that, but the screen was just too interesting to stay away from._

…

g3rard was still winning, deadmau5 just didn’t seem to realize. #5 punched h3l3n4 down, but g3rard replicated deadmau5’s spinning move from before and launched h3l3n4 straight onto #5’s face.

g3rard made a face at deadmau5 and Frank nearly rolled his eyes.

…

_A cop came up behind Brendon and Spencer, like he was going to ask them to leave or something, but then he got too engrossed. His nametag read ‘Jon’._

…

_Bandit watched the cat walk towards more wires, but her mother would never let her wander off to get it._

…

g3rard continued to beat down the opponent. Bob was ceering into the walkie talkie now, and the ref was hanging out on his side of the stage. The crowd was cheering for him.

…

_Patrick and Pete were jumping up and down in the trailer, yelling about how Andy and Joe owe them so much money when g3rard wins._

…

deadmau5 pulled himself together and got a good hit on h3l3n4. a piece of her metal exterior fell off, hitting the dome, but that was normal, that was repairable.

g3rard got ready to recover, to hit back for good and use this finishing move they’d been working on for months.

…

_Bandit watched as the cat yanked a wire out of g3rard’s console._

_Oh god, she hoped that wasn’t important._

…

g3rard’s console stopped working. Little warning alarms were going off in the room where his team was situated. They were trying to fix it, but it wasn’t a connectivity problem, it was a hardwire thing. Someone cut a wire.

g3rard was hitting his console, his controller, trying desperately to make something work, but to no avail.

h3l3n4 just sat, lifeless, as #5 ripped out her own arm and knocked her over with it.

KO flashed across the screen as g3rard sat down, looking pissed beyond measure.

…

_Brendon and Jon were cheering in the street as deadmau5’s victory was claimed._

…

_Pete dragged Joe outside to kick his as s when he started gloating about winning the bet._

…

There was a close up of g3rard, his arms crossed and his lips in a tight line as deadmau5 gloated all over the stage. g3rard forbid himself from making a fool out of himself by being a sore loser, but this wasn’t him throwing a tantrum, this was pure rage.

…

_Bandit’s eyes were still on the cat, she watched as it jumped up onto #5, who was standing straight and tall in victory._

_“Mom, we have to go.” She said urgently._

_“What?” Her mom asked, seeming to wake from a daze._

_“We have to go. We have to go now.” Bandit said._

_“Alright sweetie.” Her mom agreed, allowing herself to be pulled from the sea of people._

_Bandit was glad Kitty was safe in a building, but Steve and Jimmy would have to fend for themselves. Lynn-Z was her priority._

…

DEADMAU5 WINS flashed across the screen.

Gerard noticed before anyone else, but the camera was facing him, rather than what he saw. #5 was falling straight for the dome and the audience.

He took off his sunglasses, giving the world their first look at his hazel eyes. Frank was worried when he noticed that they were completely focused. They were almost never like that.

He mouthed “oh fuck” which was censored by the TV execs, before everyone else noticed the creaking metal of it falling.

Gerard ducked and covered himself with his arms as deadmau5 all but dove off the stage.

The audience cam showed people running in vain, until it shorted out.

They could feel the ground shake and heard the people screaming above them.

DISCONNECTED, the screen said.

“What.” Mikey whispered as they watched the pitch black screen.

Suddenly, there was broadcast again. They saw the glowing eyes of a robotic cat. It curled up.

Then pounced.

All that was left was a whirring, purring noise.


End file.
